The Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), Mr. Kamar Bakrin, has told potential local and foreign investors that this is the best time to put their money in the local production of sugar in Nigeria.
The NSDC boss told journalists in Lagos that the existence of a large and growing domestic demand which is put at about two million metric tonnes per annum is one of the reasons the business is viable and profitable.
He added that the export market within Africa is vast and wide enough for investors in Nigeria to explore, adding that while the Nigerian sugar market is valued at $2bn, the export market in Africa is worth $7bn.
Bakrin also spoke about the macroeconomic environment, especially currency exchange rate, which he said has made local production more competitive and importation more challenging.
“The economics are compelling with high Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) at attainable scale, and available financing that matches the business need.
“Investing in the Nigerian sugar industry is operationally feasible with access to land in secure parts of the country, and available global expertise to support local projects.
“There is a strong incentive framework and the government is committed to creating investment-friendly legislation to aid investments that tap into its Backward Integration Plan (BIP),” the NSDC boss said.
According to him, in the new model, operators of sugar projects must not only reserve a certain percentage of their investments for massive host community development in terms of schools, clinics and roads, they must also reserve job quotas at managerial levels for the communities and their catchment areas.
He added that the sugar subsector has a wide variety of high-value products that can be produced such as ethanol, bioplastics, packaging materials etc.
Bakrin who was appointed by President Bola Tinubu in October last year, said since he assumed office, he and his team have been working on putting the right measures and policies in place to drive Nigeria towards self-sufficiency in sugar production in the next eight years.
“We are taking deliberate action to accelerate local production and we have declared 2025 as the year of acceleration for sugar development in the country. We are raising a pool of appropriate funding of the right quantum, cost and tenor to create capacity for this development.
“We are also driving more aggressive expansion by existing players, entrance of credible local and global business groups and establishment of commercial sugar cane growers.
“Internally, we are upgrading capacity for training manpower for the industry, creating local varieties, multiplying seed cane and driving best practices through extension services,” he added.